You Choose Your Own Path
by DanceFromTheHart
Summary: What could have happened to Edmund after the train crash, but before being behind the door. Oneshot, minor spoiler.


You Choose Your Own Path

Edmund woke up gasping. Everthing was dark and there was a dull pain in his side, as if he had been punched there several times the day before. He sat up slowly from his laying down position and looked around. It was gradually getting lighter and he could soon see his surroundings.

To his left it was and empty greyness, and to his right there were bright greens and yellows and blue. Suddenly he felt dirt underneath him and a large tree against his back. Bleeding out from the small patch if dirt was grass, dry and brown. To his left it sloped downwards and to his right it went up. He was in the middle of a strange hill.

_How odd,_ he thought, _are the chances of me ending up in this mysterious place?_

He had no recollection of what had happened moments, days, or years before he got there, but for some reason he didn't feel like he had forgotten anything.

He sat there for a few minutes before he decided to close his eyes, for he was not fully awake. But he wasn't sleepy either. He sat for what could have been hours until he decided that there was no point in having his eyes closed, so he opened them.

He looked up the hill and noticed an extreme difference from the hill he saw before. As far as he could see there was lush green grass, flowers, fruit trees, lakes and rivers. There was a bright blue sky with a big golden sun and a few puffs of pearly white cloud. It seemed like paradise and it seemed to go on forever.

As he looked farther into the wonderful land, memories came back. Happy, wonderful memories. He remembered being crowned a king, and telling Proffessor Kirke about the time he and his sibling's spent in Narnia, and his father coming off the train, still in his soldier uniform, and giving him a big hug. More and more came flooding back until his head was full of images that made him smile.

He turned his head to the left, expecting to see more of the beautiful, memory granting land but to his dismay he say greyness, blackness, and perfect white snow that sent chills down his spine. The grass that had been dead had come back to life and frozen over. Further down the hill the frost turned into snow and even further down he could see jagged, naked trees, spike-y frozen waterfalls and, at the very bottom, and deadly cliff with razor sharp icicles hanging off the edge. Beneath the icicles there was a deathly looking greyish-green fog. Just looking there made his fingers and toes go numb.

He tried to look away because he had a feeling he knew what would happen. Unfortunatly he was frozen and dreadful memories came crashing into his mind. All of the night terrors that had kept him awake for countless hours, every second he was held in the White Witch's clutches, and the looks he invisioned on his sibling face when they saw he had betrayed them. The thoughts kept crashing until there was nothing left to come and Edmund was suddenly amble to move his head again. But has he closed his eyes and slumped against the tree another thought came to him.

He, Peter and Lucy were all standing on the train platform. They were waiting for Eustace, Jill, Polly Plummer and Proffessor Kirke who were all onboard the coming train. They heard the whistle from afar and soon saw the smoke of the engine.

_"Hey, Ed", said Peter, "Don't you think that the train is taking the bend far to fast?"_

_ "Yes, but they will probably slow it down..."_

_ Something wasn't quite right to Edmund. There was no reason for the train to be going that fast._

_ He and his two siblings turned their backs to the tracks in attempt to start a conversation but it never happened. The train _did_ take the bend far to fast and it crashed into the platform..._

Edmund opened his eyes. He could feel his heart pounding and the blood draining from his face. He lifted his shirt and looked at his side almost four inches above where the White Witch had stabbed him there was a second scar where a peice of flying wood and hit him.

_Did I die because of my injury or was I physically hit by a train?..._

He pondered this for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that he would never know. He then began to worry for his family and friends. What if they all died? Could any of them have lived?

Worry began to build up inside him, but before emotion could spill over and warm breeze from directly ahead came over him. He leaned into it and closed his eyes, welcoming its comfort. He felt as if a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

He opened his eyes and again and jumped. He was no longer on the ground but on someting...

_...Lovely!_

He ran his hands over the whiteness he was perched on. It felt as soft as a fine gryphon feather and was as warm as his mattress in Cair Paravel. He pressed into it and his hand sunk.

_Huh?_

Using just his finger tips he pushed into the fluffy mass. They sunk in deeper, past his knuckles, his wrist, his elbow until he was up to his shoulder in the material and he felt his finger tips come out the other end only to feel air.

He carfully rose into a crawling position and shuffled his way to the edge. He gasped when he looked down. He was on a cloud directly above the tree.

He started to panick again but once more there was a warm breeze. He did not close his eyes this time, though, instead he looked to where the breeze came from. Far, far away where the blue sky and grey sky bled into eachother there was a tiny speck. The speck came closer and closer as if where the skies met was some sort of road. The speck took its time coming. It could have been minutes, days, years or maybe even a lifetime, but when it got closer Edmund could see that it was large, gold in colour...

"Aslan!", he said. He got on his knees and turned his head down.

"Rise, Edmund", the beast smiled at the young man.

"Yes, Your Magesty"

"You needn't call me that here, My Son.", Aslan said, "Here there are no greater nor lesser. All are equal"

Edmund looked up into the lion's serious eyes, looking for a hint of emotion. The Great Lion smiled at him.

"Aslan!", he cried, "I've missed you". He threw his arms around the lion's neck. The beast chuckled and nuzzled his nose against Edmund's new scar. The boy felt a tingling sensation and he knew that it was his wound dissapearing.

"Do you know what has happened, Edmund", it was more of a statement then a question.

The young man nodded.

"Good, then there is no need to talk of it. What happened in the past is over"

Edmund pulled away and looked at Aslan- "What about my family and friends? Are they okay?"

"You will know when you find them", the lion replied.

"Where are they?"

"They are waiting for you"

"Where?"

"That is for you to decide", Aslan explained.

Edmund looked from right to left, left to right. Then sighed. He knew he had to go either way, but which way? To his right he knew he would be happy but did he deserve to go there? Maybe he was meant to go to the left because of his sins? He thought of how he attacked Caspian at Deathwater Island, how he betrayed his siblings, and making poor little Lucy cry.

_"Did I tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupoard?"_

"I think I know where I have to go...", he sighed.

"But are you positive, Edmund, that is where you belong?"

He looked deep into Alsan's eyes and more thoughts came to his head. Happy thoughts. Killing the seaserpent on the Dawn Treader, stabbing the White Witch through the ice- saving his brother, breaking _her_ wand...

"Now do you know?", the lion inquired.

"I think yes"

"Then so be it Edmund..."

Edmund closed his eyes and heard His voice fade away, but his name was still echoing getting steadily louder.

"Edmund! EDMUND!"

He opened his eyes to see his brother shaking him with his head in Lucy's lap.

"Edmund, are you alright?", she asked.

He slowly started to sit up.

"You were outcold, we lost you there for a second", explained Peter.

"Yeah", Edmund replied, "But I chose the right path".

**Author's Note: It is just a little one shot. :) I don't know why but I couldn't fall asleep one day so I starting thinking about ideas and then I got this one. The more I thought about it the less brain-storming and the more "an actual story in my head" it became. I kept on trying to write it out again the next day but it never came out right. I finally came up with this and I'm pretty satisfied. (: Any-whoo review please, and check out some of my other stuff. Thanks!**

** ~DanceFromTheHart**

** PS: Reviews are like Giant Goldfish crackers! Everybody loves them. Teehee. :)**


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